Wout van Aert to skip fight for green jersey at Tour de France - "We will not surpass yellow and green this year"

Wout van Aert had a wildly successful 2022 Tour de France, however he may start with different goals this year. The green jersey may not be a goal for the Belgian, as Jumbo-Visma look to go all-in for the overall classification.

"In principle I am first reserve. Sepp [kuss] is scheduled for the Tour and it remains to be seen how he will come out of the Giro," Wilco Kelderman told AD. "But for me it is good to build up for the next races anyway. I feel good and soon I will be riding my first race again in Switzerland (Tour de Suisse, ed.). In recent weeks you have seen in the Giro that it is very wise to have someone ready as a reserve, but everyone knows what their task will be. We already discussed that in the winter. There is no competition between us.”

Currently training at altitude, Jumbo's Tour block will look to mimic the success of last year, where they won overall and points classifications, alongside six stage wins with three different riders. Wout van Aert was in the base of much of that success, after a strong spring - where he couldn't take a monument win however - he's building towards the Tour, but is likely to take a more conservative approach so as to support Jonas Vingegaard in the flat stages and also prepare for the World Championships right after.

“We are going for yellow this year, so we will not surpass yellow and green this year. I hope to play an important role in hopefully another victory for Jonas," Dylan van Baarle said, before telling that van Aert would not be contesting for the points classification, responding "uh, no" when asked about that.